Mostly Friends
by TreesofPaper
Summary: Ren and Nora have been friends for the longest time, and no matter what happens, they'll never stop. Unlike a lot of Renora fanfiction, this series will attempt to portray them as comfortable in their companionship. What follows is a collection of short stories about their relationship, as best friends, as romantic partners, and as stuff in between. Rated M, just in case.
1. Drunk Walk Home

**Author's Note: I'm a bit rusty because I haven't written much in a long time, so excuse me if my prose or portrayal of the characters suck. This takes place just after Volume 2 Chapter 7, the dance episode.**

* * *

Warm streetlamp light brushed upon two figures walking to their dorms after a heavy night of dancing, partying-

"... and I never knew Jaune- *hic* Jaune's dress size was so small! I'm almost jealous!", one giggled as if she'd had too much of a brandy someone had covertly snuck into the ball, which she had.

-and watching their team leader flirt with their teammate by dancing in a skimpy dress. The other, taller figure pulled the shorter one closer, both to support her stumbling weight and to restrain her from doing anything unwise in her stupor.

"I confess I did not expect such… femininity to exude from him. I mean, good for him that it worked, but…"

"But what, Ren?"

He turned to the smaller girl who'd linked arms with him at the end of the dance and had not let go since, his voice jokingly conspiratorial. "Do you think _everything_ he wore was feminine?"

Nora's brow furrowed, then shot up in understanding. "Euughh!", she giggled harder, imagining the flimsy, nervous boy buying women's underwear to complete the outfit. "Dust, I hope not! Although you have t- *hic* to admit he'd make a great lady."

Ren's quiet laughter died down as he cringed, avoiding the image of Jaune batting his eyelashes seductively, clad in a skimpy silk blouse. "I decline to comment, and you're terrible for putting that into my head." But Ren wasn't one to crack jokes too often, and Nora was determined to capitalize on it.

"Oh, I'm awful," she sneered into Ren's coat. "Imagine him, spread-eagle-"

"-Aaaaand that's the end of that conversation." Ren grinned as he smothered her laughs with his other hand. "Why not talk about something less… less _that_. Hey, the weather's been somewhat odd these last few weeks. It looks light it might even start raining tonight."

Nora pulled herself from her gag with a pout. "Boo. Not cool. Weather conversation doesn't count as conversation, unless you're a meteralalagous *hic* mereotolist *hic* mibbity-hibbity-hip-hop-bibbity-" The ginger swayed as she walked, each step (and word) more nonsensical than the last.

Ren wrapped his arm around her waist from the side and held her arm to steady her. "Meteorologist. Dust, how much alcohol did you have?", he asked as he pulled her close again.

"Yeah, that." Nora ignored the question. "You know what's really important right now, though?"

"Hmm?"

"That guy who runs the Dust store in town, I think he's the same guy we saw running that noodle shop in town. So which one is it? How is he doing both? Are they twins? Does he just run really really fast between- *hic* between the stores? Personally, my theory is that…."

The boy listened without speaking, as he knew the signs of an oncoming rant. _This was good_ , he thought. He had to keep her busy talking. For one, it would keep her awake, as he would dread having to carry her all the way back to bed. Not that he minded carrying her, but he did mind being sore before morning training. For another, it kept her distracted from doing anything rash. Previous instances of Nora getting tipsy- not always on accident- often resulted in damaged property and damaged bones. Keeping her close and keeping her talking would keep her from destroying a lamppost for looking at her funny. And for another, he _did_ like to hear her talk to him and only him. No matter how many years they'd been friends, he'd never get tired of it and would, more often than not, humour her topic, provided it wasn't excessively inappropriate. Maybe it was the chipper lilt of her voice, or the way she could talk to him about things she wouldn't dare mention to anyone else. Maybe it was her convoluted train of thought that always kept things interesting, or that it kept him from having to put too much effort into speaking. Maybe it was that it was a comforting staple of his life. Maybe it was that she was passionate about anything and everything. Maybe it was her lips-

Ren blinked, and made a point to look anywhere but her lips, like straight ahead. Into the lip-less distance. Where their lip-less dorm stood proudly. And lip-lessly. _How much did_ I _have to drink?_ He'd had more experience with alcohol than his partner and held his alcohol well, but even Ren had his limits.

"... so basically, Dust stocks have gone down, and noodle stocks are rising fast. We gotta buy, *hic* Ren. Shit, we gotta buy so many noodles. We'll be so rich, dude, I swear. We'll be up to our necks in noodles."

"And how many noodles would that be?", Ren smiled, still staring at the dorms.

"Like…" Nora counted on her fingers. "... at least ten noodle."

"Damn, that's a lot of noodle. Really though, how much did you have to drink?" Ren turned again to the girl. Her weight on him had gotten heavier; Nora was finally getting sleepy.

"I had about... ten noodle…" She held up four fingers. "...don't judge me… I'm my own noodle…" Ren stifled a laugh at her drooping head.

"That _is_ quite a lot of noodle." His gaze shifted to her soft, shining face once more. She really did look beautiful tonight.

Nora's eyelids were weighed down by the night. "...don't judgemmme...you'on know m'storymmm."

Maybe it _was_ her lips. But maybe it was all of her.

* * *

By the time they'd reached the doorstep of the dorm building, Nora was practically falling all over him. Supporting her frame with one arm, he pulled out his scroll with the other and ran it over the pad on the door, which slid open with a _whish_. Just in time as well, as the willow trees began to flap in new night rain, glistening in the warm glow of the streetlamps. Ren and Nora step-dragged into the elevator and ascended in silence, apart from the whir of the machinery and Nora's occasional mumble. She hadn't stopped her noodle discourse, and had quietly transitioned from noodles to poodles, from poodles to Zwei, to Oobleck, then to Ozpin, then to- _what was she on now?_

"...and all the students ship it so hard, but like, Glynda and Oz...nnncan't see their own chemistry*hic*"

Ah yes, talking about their headmaster and their professor's relationship. Admittedly, it did sound much more boring when phrased as such. However, Ren had to agree, the chemistry was there, and it did pain him to watch the two hold excessively prolonged passing glances and awkward silences. How could they not see it, right in front of them?

Ren and Nora were getting home much later than the rest of their classmates on account of helping clean up at the dance for a short while, so Ren focused on getting Nora back to their room as quietly as possible. He had a low tolerance for anyone who disturbed his sleep (except for maybe Nora), and respectfully showed the tact he would like to be treated with while unconscious. Nora, on the other hand, was suddenly and unexpectedly punctuating words and phrases in her mumble with a sharp rise in volume.

"...and if they could just SEE what everyone ELSE sees…"

"Nora, hush.", Ren whispered softly, not entirely paying attention anymore.

"...and YOU saw them dancing behin-*hic* the- the- the column on the balcony, ALONE!"

"Nora." He fumbled with his scroll to unlock their dorm, in which Jaune and Pyrrha were no doubt fast asleep.

"...and it was so ROMANTIC and EVERYONE saw it and they ALL wanted to be them and I wanted to be them-"

"Nora, please!" Ren hissed as the door clicked open and they all but tumbled in. "Everyone's asleep, we need to be quie-"

"Ren, did you*hic* hear me?" With all her drunken, sleepy effort, she broke from his arms, stepped in front of him, and looked up at him, right in the eyes. Ren paused, mildly taken aback at her sudden clarity.

The girl searched his pink eyes longingly, illuminated by silent moonlight. Nora buried her face in Ren's chest, sighing into the soft, enveloping fabric. "I wanted to be them. _I wanted to be them_. I don't know if they know it yet, but even they can see that something's gonna happen be*hic*between them. I want to know that that could happen to- to- to- to me*hic*"

Ren's brow wrinkled in concerned recognition. _How much DID she have to drink tonight?_ From previous experiences with drunk Nora, she was usually only silly-drunk or fighty-drunk, neither of which were optimal states of being. But on occasion- Ren could count only twice out of six times- Nora would progress to emotional-drunk, which was a seriously nonoptimal state of being. If Nora stayed conscious any longer, she would surely say or do something even more regrettable than her usual property damage.

He glanced to the still fabric mounds of Jaune and Pyrrha, fast asleep under heavy blankets. If Nora stayed conscious any longer, she might wake them up as well. Ren threw subtlety to the wind and picked the girl up in his embrace, waddling to her bed. Their beds, really- growing up as fellow orphans in such a dangerous world, they'd never felt comfortable sleeping unless it was in arm-length proximity of each other. The habit had never broken, and Ren and Nora had pushed their beds together to form a single, larger bed on the first day they'd moved in. _Yeah, that's it. We're fellow orphans_ , Ren reminded himself internally. _Ignore what she's saying, she's drunk, and you're not too sober yourself, and even if she_ was _being accidentally honest-_ Ren glanced down at the shock of ginger hair taking up his field of view- _she couldn't mean… you. We're best friends. Always together. Friends to the end._ But a deeper, more familiar internal voice, full of implications, piped up.

 _So don't get your hopes up._

But once he'd set (flung) Nora on her bed, her hand drifted gently to his wrist, with an uncommon delicacy that sent a chill down his spine. "I want to know that it could happen to _us_."

 _Shit shit shit_

Ren shakily returned her hand to her side and drew up her duvet around her shoulders. "Um, good night, Nora, I will be… going. Over here. To my side of the bed. And you should stay on your side tonight, probably, as that would be, um… highly beneficial to your...health." Slightly off-kilter but too tired to change into sleep clothes, Ren pulled off his shoes, coat, and suit, and shambled into his own covers.

"Oh don't be such a *hic* prude," mumbled Nora under her duvet. "You know I get like this. It doesn't even matter...nh...I don't remember it in the morning anyways."

Ren was suddenly wide awake. _She doesn't?_ He thought back to the previous two times she'd gotten emotional-drunk. Both had been on accident, and both had not ended well. The first had been when she'd mistaken a 40 for juice at 10 years old and downed nearly a fifth of the bottle before Ren smacked it out of her hands. They'd had to walk the last mile home, because she screamed at the bus driver for a solid three minutes for "not understanding my needs, Greg". The second time had been a shot of Hennessey on a dare she'd taken behind their Academy's gym at 15. She'd gotten kicked out of calculus later that day by drawing hearts instead of integral symbols, and calling cross-eyed Mrs. Carlson a "heartless bitch whose eyes converged as x approaches infinity according to the nth root test" when told to stop. As she left for detention, Ren couldn't help but be impressed at her wit and inebriated knowledge of infinite. But now that Ren thought back, she really _didn't_ remember any of those events. It must have felt awful being punished for something she had no clue she did.

But this wasn't what woke Ren up. Rather, the bit about not remembering caught his attention. If Nora can't remember anything from the times she gets emotional-drunk, could he say… anything he wanted? _But first, a test_.

Ren paused for a second before saying, "I… I want to know, too."

Silence. Then, Nora turned to face him, making droopy eye contact. "Hmm?"

"I…. I think I do know. That it could happen. Us, I mean.", Ren finished warily.

"Mmm? How so?"

"Well, we've lasted _this_ long, haven't we? We've been better friends than most best friends, and I think Jaune and Pyrrha and team RWBY are all behind the idea. They can't _all_ be wrong."

The shock of ginger hair smiled sweetly, faintly. "I'm too drunk to refute any *hic* logical fallacy you may have made there. Continue." _Alright, so it_ is _safe._

Ren went on, inching closer. "I think it's… obvious that we work well together, and that we make each other happy, and risk significant bodily harm for each other." Nora laughed weakly, a mere exhale through the nose and a smile.

"And every time you clarify that we're not 'together-together', it does… hurt, a little." Nora remained silent, drowsily watchful.

"Because I think it could happen. I… I want it to happen. Us."

"Ren… why are you telling me all this now?"

Before he spoke, Ren opened his arms in a gesture of welcome. On cue, Nora rolled into him, her back to his chest, as he wrapped around her. It felt like home, home for them both. As per routine, Ren buried his face in the hair above her nape, inhaling her gently. They hadn't slept like this before they'd come to Beacon; it was a new development that Ren was not displeased with. Without a word or warning to him, Nora had just rolled into him one night and stayed. Ren simply accepted it as her familiar nature, but deep down, he knew something was changing between them. Ren held his breath for a few seconds, calculating his words.

"Because you won't remember that I really do love you in the morning."

Nora's breath hitched, on the brink of laughter or tears. Ren watched the shadow of the rain on the window pane flow down her face, and couldn't tell which one it was. It could have been both.

She paused. "Yeah. I won't." Ren couldn't read her face from this angle.

Ren spoke quickly, as if to do damage control. "I know saying the "L-word" isn't very smart early in a relationship. But I couldn't pass up the chance to tell you something I never had the guts to before. I'd say there won't be any consequences, but I know that even if you don't remember it, I will. I'll know. So I guess... this is really more of me talking to myself than actually talking to you." Ren knew he was a coward. But things were changing, and he had to know where he was in all of it. He had to know how he felt about Nora now, about the most important thing in his life by far. And talking to himself in this… convoluted manner seemed to be working. "And I'll be a coward until I finally tell you when you're sober. But I promise I'll tell you."

Ren felt her body shake in a small, dry laugh. "And how sober are _you_ right now?"

"More than you."

"Fair enough."

"...Do you... think it could happen, too?"

"...do I… love you, you mean?" Nora's voice was barely a whisper.

Ren remained silent. Nora wrapped his hands in hers as if they were precious jewels.

"...drunk me is *hic* self aware, and wayyyyyyyy more honest than sober me. You gotta- you gotta take me seriously when *hic* I tell you that I do. I'm sober me's subconscious, bitch!" Nora giggled, then burped. _Take her seriously, she says._ Ren grinned into her hair, and she felt it. "That's why you can't leave me *hic* waiting, Ren. I assure you I've been aaaaagonizing over this loooonng before you di- *hic* did. Little hint: I tell you every time I touch your nose. So tell me in the morning, Ren."

"I-"

"And if you ca- *hic* can't, then at least try to start changing something. We can't stay hiding this forrevvvverrr…" Ren propped himself up on one arm; Nora's eyes were already closed, but she was grinning wide.

"Nora?"

"*snort*...but I'll give you tonight. I'll give you tonight."

"...okay."

1 AM saw them fall into the deepest slumber, in the tightest embrace yet, a desperate clinging-on to each other, their only cornerstone in this change and their only shelter from the rain outside.

* * *

Nora woke to a tickling in her ear and turned ever so slightly. Her mouth opened in mild surprise as she saw Ren holding on to her for dear life. _He never sleeps later than me. Was last night so bad?_ And true to tradition, not a single memory of the previous night could be recalled. Her last memory was of sipping a golden liquid while watching two people dancing on a balcony. It was if everything since then had not happened, and she'd simply teleported to her bed with a massive headache the next morning.

She pushed her messy hair out of bleary eyes and yawned, "Ren… get up. We've got Oobleck in an hour." Nora sat up at the edge of the bed and looked down at herself, in full formal wear. _Shit, better get changed._ But before she could get up, she heard from behind her:

"Mmph." Ren was face down into his own pillow, reaching for her.

"What is it?", she asked, now standing, facing the bed.

The boy pulled himself up with incredible effort and knelt so that he and his partner were face to face, somewhat closer than she was used to.

"Uhhh… Ren?" He gazed past her eyes and into her soul, as if afraid of something within. "Is something wrong?"

"...No.", Ren sighed in relief. "Nothing's wrong, Nora."

"Cool beans. Boop!." She punctuated her sentence with an offhand poke to Ren's nose as she turned and gathered her towel to go take a shower. _Love you._

"Wait, Nora." The girl in question turned around inquisitively to her partner, now standing tall above her.

Slowly, carefully, he prodded her nose with his own finger. "You too." Ren smiled awkwardly, picked up his own towel, and speedwalked out the door as fast as he possibly could.

Nora stood stunned and a little confused. _You too? What does that mean? He… he couldn't know what that means, could he?_ Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip around her bright pink towel and sped out the door in his wake. Maybe some hot water would hide her growing blush.

Jaune and Pyrrha, who had actually been pretending to sleep all of last night and had heard everything, sat up in their beds and shared a knowing grin.

* * *

 **Author's Note: TreesofPaper here, and it's been a while since I've written anything for this community. Don't get committed to this story, as I don't know how many chapters I'll be putting out, or when I'll be putting them out. Just appreciate the Renora, and leave a review if you feel like it. See you next time.**


	2. The Greenhouse

**Author's Note: I love to procrastinate. Also, it's best if you listen to Lovewave- The Night and some nice rain sounds while you read this. Highly recommended. See you at the bottom.**

* * *

It was usually pleasant to see Nora quiet. It meant she was content to be where she was, and didn't feel the need to bounce around and spout rants you were never sure had any meaning. However, given the context, Ren had reason for concern. The only other, fairly rare, reason that Nora would get so deafeningly quiet was when she was angry beyond compare. A simple glance at the pink-clad huntress told Ren that she was about to explode any second now.

"Nora." Ren spoke as if approaching a sleeping Ursa, or defusing a bomb. Nora did not respond, did not seem to even register that he had spoken. Instead, she calmly closed the textbook she'd been studying for the last three hours, took a deep breath, and whipped around in her chair, hurling it at the far wall with all her might. Without Akoúo̱, Pyrrha's shield, propped up right where Nora threw it, the book would have torn a massive hole in the wall and probably the next four. It bounced off harmlessly, but not without unleashing a metallic ringing that caused the members of team RWBY across the hall to yelp in surprise. Jaune and Pyrrha probably would have come running had they not been in the gym right now.

Ren remained motionless as Nora stood and walked stiffly to their bed. She calmly laid down on her stomach, burying her face in her pillow, silent.

After a pause that felt much longer than it was, Ren spoke again. "Nor-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Nora gathered all her frustration at Auric Studies and unleashed it in a fearsome roar into her pillow.

Ren, already sitting on the bed with his own copy of _Elementary Aura Dynamics, Version 4_ , leaned over and patted her back sympathetically. "Same", he sighed. "This unit does have a lot of difficult-"

"Useless", Nora interjected into her pillow.

"-unclear-"

"Stupid.."

"-and fairly dry-"

"Boring as shit."

"-content. But to be fair, this is kind of what I expected from Goodwitch." Ren rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger, pinching the bridge of his nose. "She sets the test date on Monday, then makes the project due Wednesday, and we've got a reading-"

Nora moaned in despair, muffled by her pillow. "Please shut up, I don't need this negativity in my life." Ren obliged and continued to read from the textbook. Though he would never burst out like his partner, he truly did feel the same, as did everyone else in their class. Professor Goodwitch was a wonderful Huntress- deadly, beautiful, fearless, skilled- and the class loved it when she lectured. She never failed to keep class interesting, and had the highest pass rate in Beacon. But she just had to assign the most bone-dry, mind-numbing textbook humanly possible as reading. It was more confusing analogy making several large logical jumps than actual content, and did its best to utilize erudite vernacular, irrespective of necessity- use long words needlessly. The paragraphs on the back of their shampoo bottles were more interesting.

"Fuckin' three hours! I READ THAT BOOK FOR THREE HOURS AND LEARNED NOTHING!" Nora let out a demented laugh, slowly letting it devolve into a desperate muffled wail.

Normally, Ren would say something wise and motivational about the pursuit of knowledge and the value of persistence, but normally Ren wasn't this exhausted. Continuing to read this drivel was something he could stand no longer. He glanced down at the page he'd left off of.

" _...intertesselation of sui generis mental phenomena, namely within the consciousness aspect of the non-localizable mind, and auric field distribution strength throughout the implicate order of existence, indeed becomes undeniable when one considers said distribution's effect on the explicate order of existence, as proven by the limbic system response within an individual aura user, the range and magnitude of which is best determined by..."_

 _Yeah forget this._

Ren leaned over and pulled on Nora's arm, rolling her over on her back. "Nora, get up. Get up."

"No. I'm gonna lie here until I'm dead." Nora stubbornly kept the pillow to her face and allowed herself to go limp. "And don't start lecturing me on 'knowledge being the huntress's best weapon'. I will actually die if you tell me to keep reading."

The exhausted boy smiled slightly, still lightly shaking Nora's arm. "I won't if you get up. Come on, we're gonna do something else. I'm bored." He stretched his arms in a yawn.

Nora, so focused on dying in her pillow a second ago, released her grip on it and allowed herself a glance at Ren. "You're _bored_ of _reading_? Who are you and what have you done with my Ren?"

"I forced him to read this textbook and he died."

Nora snorted, but acquiesced, bringing the pillow down from her face to her chest. "Whaddya wanna do?"

"Well, not this, for sure. Now get up!" Ren threw his body over hers, pinning her to the bed. Nora yelped and smacked him with the pillow, and their bed, covered with papers and books a second ago, devolved into a laughing mess as a flurry of pillows and shoving turned into an impromptu wrestling match. Ren always knew how to react to Nora's moods, and vice versa. Over the years, he'd come to a general understanding that when Nora was bored and stressed, she needed to release all her pent up energy, usually in a physical manner, hence Ren's leaping on top of her. But more than that, it was also a small experiment. With her growing strength and skill as a huntress, Nora's form of catharsis was becoming increasingly dangerous to those around her, and as per Ren's hypothesis, it was helping much less than it used to.

"Alright, alright! I surrender!" Ren tapped her arm to signal her to release him from her half nelson. They sprawled out on the bed next to each other, disheveled and panting hard. "That wasn't… what I meant."

"No, yeah, I… I thought that would help… a lot more than it did…"

"Yeah, not… not anymore."

"Well," Nora sat up, regaining her breath. "There goes my idea. What did _you_ wanna do?"

"Help… help me up and I'll show you. I wanted to try something else _besides_ beating the crap out of each other."

* * *

Yang Xiao Long opened her door just a crack to watch a disheveled and out of breath Ren and Nora opening their door and walking down the hall. It didn't take much for her to put the pieces together. A loud banging noise, a muffled moan, the violent sounds of a bed shaking, and now this? Yang closed the door ever so slowly and turned to her team, all watching her for an answer. Almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

Weiss put a hand to her mouth and gasped, and Blake nodded knowingly. "It was bound to happen soon enough," shrugged Yang, her hands on her hips.

Weiss nervously placed her hands in her lap and stared out the window pointedly. "I j-just didn't expect it so s-soon."

"Or so loud," Blake added, not looking up from her book.

Ruby looked on at her teammates cluelessly. "Expect what? What happened? Are they alright? Should we check on them?"

Weiss, Blake, and Yang instantly stiffened, and shared a thought simultaneously. _She's too young_.

"NO", they all blurted out a little too fast. Ruby squinted at them suspiciously.

* * *

Spring hit harder in Vale than any other kingdom, and for the past two weeks, the rain had ranged from light showers to near-typhoons. The city of Vale's storm drains were always well prepared, but the nuisance of having to get to work or class while being battered about by rain was ever present. Fortunately for Ren and Nora, the rain today was just light enough to be pleasant, but just heavy enough to not be an annoying mist. During these rains, Ren had found that the Beacon Garden Greenhouses were the nicest place to be, and could occasionally be found inside, just enjoying the rain. The Greenhouses consisted of three ornate glass buildings framed with black steel, each around 20 feet tall at their highest point, 20 feet wide, and about 2000 feet long. The vaulted ceiling was almost Victorian in nature, made of grimy yet stunningly curved glass panes continuous with the walls. More than enough space to cultivate flora for food, aura boosting, medicine, and other more tactical purposes, yet somehow it always seemed to be stuffed to the brim with greenery. It smelled pungent and aromatic at the same time, giving off a heady scent that could only be described as wild.

"So you wanted to show me where you grow your weed?"

"No. Also, I don't grow weed, or smoke it for that matter."

"Hey, despite all we've been through since getting here, you've stayed calm all the way. Don't blame me for making an educated guess, and I won't blame you for blazing it up."

"Dude, I don't smoke weed."

"I'm just saying that's exactly what you _would_ say if you _did_ smoke weed." Nora shrugged at an exasperated Ren as they shut the greenhouse door behind them.

The boy closed their umbrella and shook it vigorously before placing point down by the door. "And if I _did_ smoke weed, I'd share it with you," Ren pointed out. "You need it _way_ more than I do."

"That's very sweet of you," Nora teased.

"I know. Now follow me." Ren led Nora down the dirt path to the heart of the greenhouse. The designers had certainly known what they were doing; the Greenhouses were their strongest expression of aesthetic meeting function in the whole school. Dust-powered lanterns hung at intervals from the roof, casting a gorgeous candle-warm glow over the plants while simultaneously nourishing them with a little extra magical power. It explained why any vegetable or fruit, herb or flower, flourished here no matter where they were planted. That, and adequate care from the groundskeepers, who were thankfully off their shift at the moment. Comically oversized leaves loomed above the two as they passed, pushing the occasional branch or stalk out of their way. Though it seemed overgrown, it was actually well maintained and wondrously lush. Everywhere Nora looked in awe, she could find a sweet smelling fruit, an enchantingly vivid flower, and curiously entwined herbs. She ran her hands along a row of blue bushes, and she could have sworn they spun to greet her. Some glowed, some shrank at the touch, some even seemed to be floating. Nora felt as if she was no longer at Beacon, but within the forests of some enchanting alien environment which she never wanted to leave.

"Over here." At the sound of Ren's voice, merely a whisper, Nora snapped out of her trance. They'd reached the middle of the greenhouse, a wide glass rotunda with an ornate glass dome. Thick leafy walls of vine crawled up to the top, and at their base grew plump bushes, thick ferns, and obscenely tall grass. At the very center, there was a small pond, covered in lotuses, and at the middle grew a wide cherry tree. Being so large in such a relatively small space, its branches were practically a second roof. Its petals were scattered all over the ground, covering it in a light dirty pink blanket. Nora inhaled deeply, as if it were her first breath and her last.

"It looks… it even smells like-"

"Yeah. Home." Ren cut in beside her, also staring up at the branches of the cherry tree. It looked and smelled just like the forests around Kuroyuri. If you closed your eyes, it felt like the last decade or so had never passed. Though he and Nora had grown up in vastly different circumstances, the forests of Kuroyuri exuded an infectiously calming aura for everyone that experienced them.

"Yeah," Nora agreed quietly in reverence. "Home. So, uh… what were you planning on doing?"

"Absolutely nothing. Specifically on that bench. Come on." Ren brought her to a bench at the western wall, and dusted off the petals before taking a seat on the weary wood.

"Huh?"

"We're gonna meditate." Ren rested his elbows on his thighs. "I've been seeing the trend for a little while now. You and your aura are out of sync. When you're stressed, you like to do something physical, right? Like sparring, or wrestling, whatever." Nora nodded, unsure where this was going. "But it hasn't been enough to get your mood back up anymore, and as a consequence, your aura doesn't replenish as much as it did before. Not to mention, when you're in such a sour mood, your aura actually weakens along with your mental state. Basically, if you keep doing this, you'll be stuck in a downward spiral of negativity, and you'll just always be weak and angry. Happens to more hunters than you'd think."

Nora blinked, eyebrows raised. "And since when did you become such an expert on aura?"

"I was reading that book twice as long as you were. Also, I _pay attention_ in class." Ren nudged her meaningfully, at which she scoffed and nudged back harder.

The aged oak of the bench creaked and groaned as Nora leaned back into it, allowing her head to touch the glass and the leaves."Whatever, nerd. Get on with it. What do you want me to do?"

"Lean back, cross your legs, close your eyes. We'll start slow." Nora obeyed, having nothing else to do, but took care to remove her muddy shoes before doing so.

"Now breathe."

Nora took a deep breath, and opened one eye. "And?"

"Again." Ren's voice was soft as petals. She could barely hear him over the rain clacking on the glass around them. Nora breathed deeply once more, and when she received no further instruction, continued. _How long are we gonna be doing this? I thought we were gonna be doing something fun, like a movie, or hiking through the forest, or extreme painting. What would extreme painting be like?_ Nora had visions of herself smashing a giant puddle of mixed paint with her weapon and sending colors flying everywhere. _That sounds so dope. We should totally do that._

"You don't have to force yourself to stop thinking about anything." The ferns and vines swayed and glowed, their movements issuing a soft _hush_. _How am I supposed to just stop thinking? Even when I stop thinking, I start thinking about stopping thinking, and then I'm thinking all over again! Extreme painting! Other extreme things! Extreme… fishing!_ Nora visualized herself exploding the shit out of some fish in a river, drastically reducing the fish population while simultaneously increasing the volume of the river, thus killing even more fish and effectively making her the Fish Destroyer, Destroyer of Fish. Nora breathed in, and out.

"All you have to do is focus on your breathing. Thoughts will come into your head, but do your best not to follow them. You're just… breathing." The rain grew a little stronger outside, pelting the roof relentlessly. The cherry tree and its lotus pond remained undisturbed. _Okay, just breathing. I'm just breathing. Extreme breathing. No, forget that. Extreme regular breathing. Yeah._ Nora breathed in, and out.

Ren sounded like he was telling her the deepest secret of his life, murmuring in a voice for her ears only. "You'll notice that your mind feels busier. But it isn't, you're just becoming more aware of how busy it already is. Let your thoughts fall out, and your mind will calm on its own." Nora became more aware of how her body moved when she breathed. The bench was warm, and the scent of the greenhouse was making her sleepy. _Let it all fall out. I'm just breathing. Nothing extreme. Nothing, period._ Nora breathed in, and out.

"Forget the idea that you're breathing. For now, there is no mind. There is no body, no time. There is only… breathing." The air felt like a plush, omnipresent blanket, enveloping the two like a mother. _Just… breathing._ Nora breathed in, and out, and time ceased to be. Her mind- or lack of- was empty, and for the first time in a long time, she felt... peace. _Oh. Oh wow._ The greenhouse began to shine faintly through the afternoon rain, casting a soft pink glow on the plants outside. Inside, however, the space radiated with life. With every breath Nora took, her aura pulsed pink upon the leaves and branches around her. Her frame was surrounded by an ethereal cloud of light; her peace was reflected by her aura's renewed wholeness.

"Nora, open your eyes.", a voice gently whispered. She did so, at one with herself, to find her partner smiling contentedly at her. Nora lifted her arms dreamily, one by one, to inspect the cloud of aura around them. She felt more powerful and yet more placid than she had in so long. It was as if she had heightened awareness of all of her body systems and the environment around her, like the sudden dilation of her blood vessels, and the buzzing of the bee on the third rhododendron to her left just below the touch-me-nots, and the degree of the rise and fall of Ren's chest as he breathed. She watched Ren's fainter forest green aura glow in tandem with hers. It was not as noticeable since most everything around them was green already, but it pulsed nonetheless. The physical manifestation of their souls intertwined with each other, and the greenhouse suddenly felt a little more magical.

"Fuckin' lovely," she commented quietly as she looked about in awe, to Ren's drowsy amusement.

"Now you have to lock your aura, so you can keep such a high level of aura for longer." Nora remained in wondrous silence, waiting for him to continue, too content to speak more. "Think of something, or somewhere, that makes you feel… not just happy. Content. Safe. Home. Take about ten minutes to just focus on that one thing." Though Nora knew he probably didn't mean to, Ren's voice became huskier and breathier, almost as if they were about to fall asleep.

Nora's brow furrowed in confusion as she closed her eyes and continued breathing. Many things made her feel safe and happy. Images flashed through her head. _Magnhild? My bed? My friends?_ The passing minutes began to feel like milliseconds as she slowly began to panic. If she lost concentration now, this wonderful, glorious sensation of wholeness and contentedness would leave her. She didn't want it to end, she absolutely couldn't let it. Nora frantically began flipping through every single remotely positive memory she had, but none of them felt quite right in this context. _When Ren makes me breakfast? The dance? Hanging out with Team RWBY? Um… um… uh…huh?_

 _Ren?_ Nora opened her eyes, suddenly aware of the steadily mounting pressure on her right shoulder. The corner of her eye was filled with a cascade of dark hair, and her nose was held by the familiar scent of her partner. Nora leaned away and turned to face him.

Ren's sleeping figure slumped on Nora's shoulder for support. She felt his body rise with every sleepy breath as his auric glow faded, now encompassed by her own. _He was studying twice as long as I was. He must have been so exhausted, but he still took the time to come out here and help me, not to mention make breakfast for me and even wrestle with me._ He was so… close. Not just close like their everyday close, or even how they slept together habitually close, but... _close._ Like he'd been there forever, like it was where he belonged.

 _Like it's where I belong_. Nora wrapped her arm around her partner, pulling him closer within the blanket of her aura. She buried the right half of her face into his hair, and quietly observed her environment once more. The rain had returned with a renewed vigor, crashing upon the vaulted glass ceiling, a chaotic yet familiar natural drumbeat. The greenhouse rotunda, stuffed with vines and flowers and ferns to the brim, seemed to push in and grow more vivid with every second. The hanging Dust lamps' soft golden glow danced along the underside of the cherry tree, as faintly pink petals continued to fall to the dirt. Ren's head fit perfectly into the dip of her neck and shoulder, like a puzzle piece that had found its home. Nora breathed in, and out, once more. _Like it's home._

 _Home._

Nora knew it was coming, and did not flinch as her aura flared massively around her. The greenhouse was violently thrown into a stark pink and black contrast, so strong was her glow that it filled the entire structure in mere milliseconds. The rotunda flashed like a beacon, sending out what rays of light that made it past the foliage in every direction, forcing the darkness of the storm to shy away. A beacon of light, of hope, of safety and home.

And just as quickly as it came, it was gone. Nora watched as the pink glow receded back within her, briefly forming a second pink skin around her before fading entirely. All that was left was her and Ren.

 _Me and Ren. Home._ And it made sense, didn't it? She and Ren had been alone, orphans since childhood. Safety and basic survival necessities were never sure. They'd lived in the wild, in orphanages, in run-down buildings. Even Beacon was only to be their residence for four years, and after that, then what? But no matter where they lived, she always felt at home. And it had taken her this long to realize that wherever Ren was, was her home.

Nora nuzzled his head once more, and whispered into it. "I'll be your home, too."

Nora allowed herself one final thought before she closed her eyes and followed Ren into the abyss. _Welcome home_.

* * *

 **30 minutes later**

Ren and Nora were jolted awake by a thunderous crash at the far end of the greenhouse. Four sopping wet members of Team RWBY had burst through the door, three of them fighting to hold back the fourth. Ruby pried herself from the grips of her teammates, who collapsed in the dirt, and screamed with a blush worthy of one who'd just gotten "the talk" from her sister.

"Y'ALL FUCKIN!?"

* * *

 **Author's note: TreesOfPaper here. Feel free to post a review (please do it I have no idea if i'm doing this right or wrong or what). I'm hoping to capture less of a constantly-crushing-on-each-other-and-always-nervous Ren and Nora, like many of the Ren and Nora paired fanfics seem to be doing. They've been best friends since childhood, I think they'd be able to act normally and be familiar with each other without being super gushy and embarrassed. They probably have inside jokes, probably have seen each other naked, probably fight (or at least fuck with each other). Write them like you would you and your own best friends. Chill.**

 **See you next time.**


	3. Stealth, Part 1

**Author's Note: So it's been a while since I've written anything. College and my own apathy keep getting to me, but hey, better late than never.**

 **(looking at you, hysterical clerical hijinks. REMNANT'S RECLAIMER CHAPTER 31 WHEN)**

 **this one gets a little more high-stakes than the previous chapters. enjoy.**

* * *

The lavender dusk sky strobed pink a few times, followed by the sound of death.

"SUCK MY DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK~" squealed the shape in the distance madly, riding her hammer across the sky in an arc and bombing through a cloud of small Nevermore with ease.

By which he meant the death of their grade on this stealth assessment, courtesy of his partner Nora.

In a fluid simultaneous gesture of exasperation, Lie Ren and Professor Goodwitch pinched the bridge of their noses and scrunched their eyes closed, as if to somehow shut out the whimsically violent and profane spectacle sailing over the trees of Emerald Forest. Unfortunately, they not only failed to ignore the continuing explosions, but also Yang Xiao-Long's crying, wheezing laughter as she rolled around in the grass nearby.

The first-years were, for the following week, undergoing a biannual test to determine their stealth capabilities under the supervision of Professor Glynda Goodwitch and five select fourth-year proctors. To speed the process along, six sets of partners would be assigned six different sectors of the forest and tested simultaneously for two hours; first individually, then together. The objective given at the beginning of their assessment was simple: each sector was assigned a different button. Hit the button- in Ren and Nora's sector, the one on the pedestal at the chasm ruins- before 30 minutes is up or before you are spotted, whichever came first. The latter tended to be the most common outcome, easily pointed out by the drones that provided live feeds of the students' performances, at which point the assessment would end and the students would be given a score.

Ren wondered if it was possible to receive a negative score as the ginger-haired meteor landed with all the grace of a- well, a meteor- a few yards to the left of himself and Goodwitch.

Nora tucked into a roll, then bounced up giddily, waving Magnhild around as if it had the weight of a twig. "Ren! Did you _see_ that?", she squealed as she trotted over to her partner. "That was the _coolest_ thing! Can we go again, Professor Goodw-"

Goodwitch did not open her eyes or remove her fingers from the bridge of her nose as she spoke. "Ms. Valkyrie, you _are_ aware this was meant to be a _stealth_ assessment, correct?"

"Yep! Oh. _Ohhh._ " Nora's mouth opened as her shoulders sagged in realization. "Yeah," Nora rubbed her upper arm sheepishly. "My bad. _Miiiight_ have forgotten about that a little. But I was just having so much _fun_! And really, my weapon isn't exactly built for stealth, as I'm sure you already know, you-" She eyed Goodwitch's clipboard warily. "-generous, benevolent professor, you."

Goodwitch released a heavy sigh and opened her eyes, now filling out boxes and writing comments on the evaluation sheet. "While you are not necessarily _wrong_ about the stealth capabilities of a... grenade-launching warhammer, there were still plenty of other alternative strategies to complete the task. Such as using your martial arts skills, like Mr. Lie did in _his_ assessment. Or avoiding conflict altogether. Or not making yourself a _glaringly_ obvious target and alerting every Grimm within 10 miles by flying through the air, yelling- ahem- 'Suck my dick'."

Yang's uncontrollable laughter briefly turned into choke-laughing as she began gasping for air over the cliff's edge. Even Blake, leaning over her and thumping her back, couldn't suppress a snort at the sound of _the_ Glynda Goodwitch apparently telling a student to suck her dick with all the passion of one reading a grocery list.

"I hope that you do just as well in this final section of your assessment as Ms. Xiao-Long and Ms. Belladonna have. Two students of mine who have already passed soundly and should _return to their dorm immediately_." Goodwitch punctuated the last part of her sentence with a pointed glare at the two, who decided to beat a hasty retreat and live another day.

"We _won't_ disappoint, Professor!" Nora saluted and stood at attention. She would have looked more serious were it not for the leaves and fading Nevermore feathers that had formed a chaotic nest in her hair, not to mention the manic grin she failed to hide. Nora yanked Ren over to an available launchpad, which Professor Goodwitch triggered with a sigh when the pair was ready.

"WHEEEEeeeeee- mmph!" Nora's gleeful squeal was thankfully cut short by Ren forcing his hand over her mouth before they flew too far, thus preventing anymore Grimm from spotting them and the generous, benevolent Professor Goodwitch from having to dock _too_ many points.

As she watched her students rocket away in each other's arms and disappear into the canopy without a sound, Professor Goodwitch hoped futilely that Xiao Long and Belladonna would refrain from tarnishing her reputation too much.

* * *

In little time, violet dusk gave way to ebony night. A warm breeze and stark moonlight mingled, filtered and broken by the foliage. Leaves danced on their way down, and the trees threw their contorted shadows across the forest floor.

The perfect environment to complain.

"I don't see why Goodwitch has to be so uptight about the whole stealth thing," Nora griped a little too loudly as the pair trekked through the forest, eyeing the darkness for any trace of red or white. "I didn't get hit _once_ , and I made it to the button and back _way_ faster than anyone else."

Ren briefly flared his semblance with Nora's hand in his at the sound of a twig snapping. They froze in place for a few seconds, before the culprit- a clumsy squirrel- bounded out of a bush and up into the trees. "You _know_ that wasn't the point of the exercise, Nora." Ren released a soft sigh and resumed walking. "Stealth is _key_ to-"

"Stealth, shmealth. We're _strong_ enough. We can handle a few Grimm on our own without stealth." To illustrate her point, the girl climbed a small boulder, placed her hands around her mouth, and yelled into the night air. "I'M AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN WHO DON'T NEED NO STEALTH!"

"Nora!" Ren hissed. He scanned the trees around him frantically; there was no way the Grimm hadn't heard that.

"BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY ROCKIN' EVERYWHERE!"

"Nora! Cut it out!"

"There's nothing out here, Ren, chill!" Nora laughed. "TWO TO THE ONE TO THE ONE TO THE THREE-"

A glint of glowing red eyes flashed through the leaves to their right.

"I LIKE GOOD PUSS-oomph!" To Nora, it appeared as if Ren had clotheslined her in the stomach for no good reason, lifting her up into the canopy. Her body curled around Ren's right arm as they flew to the branches and all the wind leaving her body. In mid-air, the boy spun and steadied himself on a limb a dozen feet above the forest floor. Ren clutched his partner to his chest, placed a hand over her mouth, and activated his semblance as he pressed into the shadows.

From behind a bush slinked a dark shape, unnaturally black with spikes of bone dotted across its gargantuan arms. Its eyes were orbs of crimson hatred, and its bestial abdominal muscles shook with a low growl. Slowly, purposefully, it padded to the base of the tree and sniffed.

There was food here.

The Alpha Beowolf snorted, and on cue slipped out from the brush at least twenty more, smaller but by no means small, snarling pack members. Leaves and twigs crinkled and shifted under their massive paws. Beowolves were normally no significant threat to a hunter or huntress in training, but in packs? Led by an Alpha? At night? More than a few experienced Hunters and Huntresses had vanished in the woods under similar circumstances. Each Beowolf's back and arms rippled with muscle, covered in wild midnight fur meant to disguise in the night and terrify in the day.

Their every step sent a soft thud echoing in the immediate area, and their low snarls formed a menacing chorus. The scent of panic, of _human_ , had faded just as fast as it came. Their food was close, it was here, it was fresh, _it was fresh_. Not that they needed to eat anything physical, no. They fed on despair, and what despair tasted better than that of a cornered human being eaten alive?

The pack sniffed around, occasionally pointing their snouts in one direction and tensing up. One grew so bold as to paw at the tree, sniffing its base for something, _anything_. The scent was strongest here, or at least it had been. It gazed up with its piercing eyes into the branches, and could have sworn one of the shadows was staring back.

A beat passed, and the world stood still. Nora's hand hovered ever closer to Magnhild on her hip, ready to crush a few skulls. She could blow this brazen one away with a twitch of her finger, she could do it _so easily._ She stared the beast dead in the eye. Itching for a good fight, she waited for the slightest twitch to-

Ren's spare hand flew to hers and pulled it back with a terse shake of the head. Nora's eyes widened, then wrenched into an irritated glare at her partner as best as she could without turning around.

The Alpha Beowolf snorted once, and stalked off to the west, with its small black horde in tow. They disappeared into the brush soundlessly, and all was quiet again.

Ren let loose a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and released his iron grip on his partner's body. He relaxed his shoulders, and his semblance fell away, returning the color to their bodies.

"Ren, what the hell?" Nora nudged him with her shoulder to push Ren away.

"Stealth is _key_ to survival. We wouldn't have stood a chance against those Grimm, not like this."

"We could have taken them-"

"We could have _died_ ," Ren hissed, and angrily shoved her across the branch. "You could have… you…"

"Ren…"

He pulled Nora closer and let out a heavy sigh into her hair. "You're strong, stronger than most people in our year. In a straight fight, I don't doubt you could smash dozens of Grimm in minutes. But not all of our fights are going to be in the day, with plenty of space to swing Magnhild and plenty of friends to defend us."

"Ren, I-"

"You _have_ to take this more _seriously_ , Nora. Beowolf packs at night, in their natural habitat, are infinitely more deadly than the regular Beowolf fights we're used to." Ren held Nora at arm's length and stared into her eyes intensely. " _All_ of our fights are going to be more deadly than we're used to. We're at Beacon now."

Nora pushed the top of her head into Ren's chest to avoid his gaze. "I know, I- I know. The less you get spotted, the less you get hit. But how am I supposed to be of any _use_ on stealth missions? That's literally the exact _opposite_ of how I fight. I can't just _not_ do anything and give you all the work. I don't wanna be useless," she grumbled.

Ren hesitated. She was right; she hit with the power of a freight train, but had all the subtlety of one, too. And in situations like this, hand to hand combat was much too dangerous. Nora was team JNPR's shock-and-awe, and had little use on missions that explicitly forbid wanton destruction and loud noises.

"You're smart, Nora. You know you are. Who else could go from being an random orphan to topping their graduating class, making their own weapon, getting into Beacon, and being one of the best first-years of the last decade?"

"You." Nora snorted at Ren's backfired attempt at motivation.

"I- well, um… shit," stuttered literally the only other person who fit the criteria.

"I get it; I can figure something out, I'm the great Nora Valkyrie and I never give up." Nora finished Ren's weak pep talk for him with a giggle. "Now hurry up, we've got 20 minutes left to get to that button. I'll be more careful this time, promise."

Ren shrugged, hiding a smile, and followed her as she leapt from branch to branch in the moonlight to the ruins.

* * *

The two of them could recall from Initiation the spacious, eerie temple ruins where team RWBY had reverse-guillotined a Nevermore. Between the ruins and the forest, they also remembered the massive chasm, and the ancient bridge that spanned its foggy depths.

 _The one we destroyed,_ thought Ren forlornly as he gazed into the abyss with his partner.

"So… now what?"

"Well, if we're being stealthy, riding Magnhild isn't an option anymore." Nora sighed and looked up at the small drone flying far above them, watching their every move. The stars were blinking into view now, tiny bastions of light holding against the pastel black atmosphere. The only reason Nora could spot the drone was because it was the only star that was blinking _and_ green. She waved at it tentatively. No response. She took it as approval of her newfound wisdom and caution.

Ren followed her gaze and placed his hands on his hips in thought. "It's a shame; it probably would've only taken one shot to cross. But even one would alert any Grimm on the other side and cause us to fail, not to mention we'd have to survive that Beowolf pack on our trip back."

"It amazes me how you manage to make a failed test sound slightly worse than literal death, Ren."

"This morning you challenged a student to a duel at breakfast."

"He was threatening you!"

Ren blinked. "He _sneezed_ in my general direction."

"And didn't cover his _mouth_. Pathogens are not to be taken lightly, Ren." Nora wagged her finger at him, at which Ren rolled his eyes. "Ugh, _fine_. I actually did it because he took the last of the maple syrup."

Ren blinked again as his face scrunched in confusion. "That's… not better."

" _Anyways_ … we've got to figure out a way across." Nora checked her watch. "We've got about 15 minutes left. Wait, how did _you_ get across?"

Ren pointed to the closest of the four diagonal bridges, specifically at one of the missing areas. "Had about 20 minutes to get across in my assessment. I gathered some vines and lassoed a pillar, used it to swing across. Problem was, I overestimated its stability- the pillar collapsed, and took that whole section of the bridge with it. I had to use Stormflower to scale the towers, and I am _not_ trying either of those things again. What about you?"

Nora pulled out Magnhild.

"Oh right."

The ginger turned her weapon on its head and leaned on it in thought. "I will concede that what you did sounds totally badass. But! As we established previously, _I'm_ super smart and great and all. And as such, I now have an _infinitely_ more badass idea!" She kicked Magnhild up and twirled it before flourishing it at Ren's head. "It even uses parts of _your_ idea, so you're welcome."

"So your idea's gonna somehow get us across the chasm, make little to no noise, _and_ deal with the pack? And it's based on what I've already said was a _bad_ idea?"

"And using Magnhild!" She struck a heroic pose, pointing her weapon at the moon with her right arm while flexing with her left.

Ren raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Not at her boasting of her likely ludicrous idea, but at the cheesy pose. Of course, he trusted his partner with his life. He'd meant what he'd said before. Nora was almost deviously clever, and her nefarious plans were never something Ren wanted to be on the receiving end of. Despite her often ditzy exterior, she wielded an intellect just as large as her hammer. Yes, she could be forgetful and silly, but when she truly set her mind to a challenge, she got it done with the efficiency and flair of an artist. A vicious, terrifying, adorable artist.

Ren glanced at his watch. _11:44, 11:43, 11:42…_

"So what's the plan?"

* * *

Twenty massive snouts inhaled the forest floor, eighty padded feet creeped in silence, forty blood-red eyes watched monitored the treeline. There had been no sign of food, sadly, for quite some time, aside from their brief stop a few minutes ago. With no definitive lead, they had moved on and fanned out in a circle, searching until they found a scent or the flesh it came from.

They had split up. They were vulnerable.

Except for the one already disintegrating on the ground, its throat gouged out and its body splayed wide. That one was just incredibly dead.

Amidst the trees, the pack was now on high alert. They'd heard the dying whimper of one of their members, and immediately began to gather, snarling at anything that moved. There was nothing to indicate that anything but a ghost had killed their brother; no struggle, no fear, nothing. Just a fading corpse and-

 _A flash of green_.

The pack turned as one, snarling and growling at where the flash of green had once been. It was bright, it was human, it was _food_. They darted to where the flash had been, surrounding the area, and the Alpha pounced into the clearing. Another body, its head facing entirely the wrong way. It didn't even have time to whimper.

 _A flash of green_.

Another one! Oh, they had it now, they could taste it-

 _A flash of green_.

The pack swarmed to and fro, gnashing their teeth and letting out the occasional roar of frustration. They couldn't even track it by its emotion; it was as if any negative feelings blinked in and out of existence intermittently, and always somewhere new, somewhere just out of reach. The green shadow darted behind trees, through the branches, over bushes, with inhuman speed, leading the swarm of black on through the woods. With nothing but a quiet _whoosh_ and a taunting rustle of leaves, the flash of green lead its prey to their demise.

* * *

"Almost-"

 _WHAM_

"-got it-"

 _WHAM_

"-hup- There!"

 _WHAM_

Nora heaved her weapon to herself in an arc, her handiwork complete. She dusted off the sharper end of Magnhild, checking for any rocky residue, and glanced at her watch. Ren would be coming back any second now with his entourage in tow. It was time to get started.

The girl tightened her grip on the cliff face she'd just finished carving. She'd dug out as many holes as possible, as deep as possible, about ten feet below the part of the cliff that jutted out most prominently. As she reverted Magnhild to its grenade launcher form, she counted four holes that she'd cut in a straight line along what she hoped was the weak point. All that was left to do was grip onto the cliff face and wait.

This was either going to be really sick, or really painful.

* * *

The green flash had continued to prove unattainable, and maddeningly so. The Beowolf pack had lost patience quickly, opting instead to brazenly rush at it instead of stalking it. Their soft snarls had become enraged growls and howls, their light footfalls became primal drumbeats, and their chests heaved with longing. If only they could-

There! There was nowhere for the green flash to go now. It had reached the edge of the woods, and there was nothing past there but the chasm. They had it now! The pack burst through the trees as one, to find… nothing? They stood at the edge, breathing heavily, confused and frustrated. There was no way they could have just lost it, unless it had jumped over the edge itself. At the back of the group, the Alpha let loose an unholy howl to the broken moon.

The howl spread across the pack quickly; from back to front, each Beowolf began to howl, ignorant of the rumble at their feet and the small shape flying away from them through the mist to the ruins.

The Beowolves at the front barely got to start their howl before the whole pack collapsed into the abyss. Their howls' echoes lingered a little while after their bodies had faded into the black. The night was quiet once more.

No sooner than Nora had reverted Magnhild into its grenade launcher form did Ren come flying through the trees, trailing leaves behind him as he darted to the edge of the cliff. He spared a glance at the direction he'd come from before twisting his body into a fluid backflip and disappearing over the edge.

"Oof!" Nora grunted as she caught Ren on her back, more because he'd wrapped his arms around her neck than because he was heavy. " Was that _necessary?_ "

"Absolutely not." Ren replied. Nora could practically hear the grin on his face. She felt something cold trickle from her back to her front, enveloping her in its cool embrace, and was thankful Ren's semblance masked her blushing bewilderment at his words being mumbled into her neck.

The Beowolves arrived, and in their frustration, began their howl.

"Ready?" Ren whispered. Nora nodded imperceptibly, and readied her weapon. Magnhild, for this special occasion, was loaded with her lovely kinetic rounds. Infused with her Aura, they would serve to throw her back great distances when fired, while still dealing the regular amount of explosive damage upon impact.

Nora tensed, pushed off from the cliff, and fired four times in rapid succession.

The next few seconds were a literal blur. Each shot landed perfectly in each of the holes she'd excavated, and each shot detonated within milliseconds of each other, unleashing powerful bursts of pink destruction within the cliff. As per Nora's plan, the explosions were muffled under several thousand pounds of rock, all of which crumbled in an instant. Through Ren's squinted eyes, he could just barely make out several flailing black shapes among the falling rock as he and Nora shot across the chasm.

For a few seconds, if taken out of context, it was almost beautiful. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie sailed up through the air clutching each other in pleasant silence. The mist and moonlight danced around them as they went, a muted pink rocket punching through the darkness to safety. Nora spread her limbs wide and laughed gleefully, and Ren's arms moved from her neck to her stomach in a placid embrace.

They landed gracefully, much closer to the pedestal than expected, nearly crashing into the temple at the base of the cliff face where Ruby had decapitated the Nevermore. Without the constant threat of impalement by giant feather, the temple ruins were actually fairly tranquil. Built in the middle of a foggy chasm, it almost felt as if the ruins were built high above the clouds. Were it not for the blinking green button on a chrome rectangular pedestal reminding them of their objective, it would have felt incredibly surreal.

Nora rose from her landing pose to approach the button. "And three minutes left to spare. Nice." She looked over to Ren, who was still admiring the hauntingly gorgeous view. "Ready to get this over with?"

" _You_ do the honors." The boy smirked as he joined her at the pedestal. "You were right, that _was_ pretty badass."

"Oh _stop it_." She waved away the compliment with dainty giggle, and she would have looked more bashful if not for the grenade launcher she waved it away with and her shit-eating grin. Regardless, she trotted over to the button and gave it a mild victorious tap. "Boop!"

At her touch, a small, semicircular protrusion on the side of the pedestal flickered to life and shot out a miniature holographic clock. _00:02:44._ They'd cut it close, but passed comfortably. Ren's sigh of relief was cut short when Nora jumped to hug him. The sensation of her legs around his middle and her arms around his neck was, of course, familiar by now, but that made the experience no less appreciated.

 _And no less suffocating_ , thought Ren as he attempted to reciprocate as best as he could without asphyxiating.

* * *

Bloodlust in physical form stalked the treeline. With gaping scarlet eyes it had watched as its brothers and sisters vanished into the fog below, as if they were never there at all. But the Alpha, unlike the other Beowolves, had been smart enough and quick enough to dart away from the collapsing cliff; his ranking was not without merit.

It could sense enough of the two figures to know that they were linked. They were bonded in action and in thought. The Alpha had lived long enough to have seen humans like this before- humans so bonded that separation would elicit the sweetest dread, the most potent worry and distress. So in the precious few minutes his prey spent on the other side of the chasm, the Alpha devised its own, albeit crude, plan.

It watched as the two humans landed and gathered around a pedestal. It watched as one tackled the other, and watched as they walked back the way they'd come, chatting animatedly. It watched as the shorter one pulled out a hammer, and as the taller one joined the other on top of it.

And when they came sailing back with a _thoom_ and a _whoosh_ , the Alpha moved.

The two humans had split up and were arriving fast, intending to tuck and roll through the grass once they landed. They hadn't expected any survivors, which the Alpha used to its advantage. Like lightning, it bounded forward from the bushes and lashed out.

 _CRACK_

"REN!"

The green one took a cruel blow to the head. His body tilted almost instantly to the side, and the impact with the ground made for a sickening, exquisite _crunch_. He skidded painfully over the rocky ground, and lay there, unmoving. This one's body flickered with the glow of Aura before fading fruitlessly into unconsciousness.

The pink one brandished her weapon a second too late, and the Alpha took its chance. In the same movement it had used to strike the other one, it spun furiously and used the sheer size and force of its great hindquarters to slam this one back over the edge. She went like a sandbag, her eyes widened and her body paralyzed in shock.

The Alpha could already feel the _fear_. It tasted like victory.

Nora could have sworn she saw the Alpha smile at her before she vanished into the dark fog below.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Went a little longer than I'd hoped. Oh well. Please, for the love of all that is good and syrupy, review this story. I have little to no idea if people are liking this or not, so let me know.**

 **One thing I noticed is that the whole thing about stealth is key to survival is that it doesn't allow for a ton of nice fight scenes. I'm planning to make up for that next chapter.**

 **Thanks for reading! I'm TreesofPaper, and I'll see you next time.**


End file.
